~ YEAR BOO Ol 7

OF THE

4H E A T H ER a society |

THE HEATHER SOCIETY

President: MR FRED J. CHAPPLE

Vice-Presidents: MRS RONALD GRAY MRS DAVID METHENY MR J. P. ARDRON MR HAROLD COPELAND MR DAVID McCLINTOCK MR P. S. PATRICK

Chairman: SIR JOHN CHARRINGTON

Secretary and Treasurer: MRS C. I. MACLEOD Yew Trees, Horley Row, Horley, Surrey Tel: Horley 2080

Committee

MRS A. H. BOWERMAN MR A. H. BOWERMAN MRS M. BOXALL MR F. L. MILLS

MRS M. PALMER MR G. MITCHELL

MR H. C. ELLIS MR H. L. NICHOLSON MR B. G. LONDON MR P. S. PATRICK

MR B. MALIN MR W. M. SHARLAND

Editor:

MR P. S. PATRICK, 6 Queens Court, Haywards Heath, Sussex.

Advertising Manager: MR B. G. LONDON 6 Roedich Drive, Taverham, Norwich, NOR 53X, Norfolk.

CONTENTS

THE SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT IMPRESSIONS DURING SEPTEMBER 1970 The Chairman

HEATHERS AT HARLOW CAR, HARROGATE V. J. A. Russ

THE LIFE OF A HEATHER PLANT The President A HEATHER PROGRAMME Mrs D. Metheny

HEATHERS IN HOLLAND AND ENGLAND H. van de Laar :

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS The Editor COMPANIONS FOR HEATHERS Mrs Pamela Harper PAST AND PRESENT J. P. A. Ardron

PERSONAL NAMES USED FOR OUR HARDY HEATHERS (1) D. McClintock

THE FALL IN AN EASTERN AMERICAN GARDEN H. W. Copeland . a

DO PRUNE YOUR HEATHERS. BB. G. London MID-WINTER FOLLY B.R. Malin .. PHYTOPHTHORA CINNAMOMI C. I. MacLeod QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ..

REPORT ON WISLEY HEATHER TRIALS...

RECENT PAPERS ON HEATHERS—1970 D. McClintock LIST OF MEMBERS

Printed by the Ditchling Press Ltd, Hassocks, Sussex, and published by The Heather Society. Copyright is reserved.

YEAR BOOK 1971 1

The Secretary/Treasurer’s

Report

1970 has been a year of marked progress. For the first time our membership has topped the 700 mark, with 746 including 48 joint husband/wife members. Much as we rejoice over the increasing membership, the time has probably come when we can no longer print the full list of members in the Year Book but must confine ourselves to supplying the names of new ones as they come, in the next publication, be it Bulletin or Year Book. We trust that you will be able to keep track of the membership by referring to the last full list, supplemented by those we shall publish from time to time. This will not be able to take account of lost members which this year-number 62.

As we now, thanks to Mr Patrick’s personal influence, appear to have a printer who can be relied upon to deliver the Year Book on time, I shall be able to let you have it as our first publication in the new year, thus giving more time for receiving your comments and opinions on it for the Spring Bulletin which will follow in March or early April, according to the date fixed for the Annual General Meeting. This year it will be on May 5th, and details will be sent with the bulletin. In it we hope to include a review of Mr Terry Underhill’s new book on heathers as well as of a beautiful book sent to us by our member Herr Hans Hornung, of Meldorf, showing how heathers are used in conjunction with other plants in North Germany. Although unfortu- nately I know no German, the pictures and plans can be appreciated by everyone, and I was also pleased to note that the stresses were marked on the specific names, which should result in a more uniform pronunciation: e.g. Tetralix, cinérea, etc.

I must not conclude without a personal note of apprecia- tion of the work our Slide Librarian is doing. For the first time I recently gave a lecture in Horley to a women’s club and on asking Mr Prew for the loan of some slides I was sent a most beautiful selection, most carefully packed. Mr

2 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

Prew added some of his private collection, and so did Mr Hale, whose pictures of his delightful garden in Haslemere perhaps stole the show, because the ladies announced that a visit there would make an excellent summer outing for their club. You have been warned, Mr Hale!

C. I. MACLEop

——_ Impressions during

September 1970 Sir John Charrington, Crockham Hill, Kent

We have had here, as probably at many other places, an unusual summer with a prolonged drought through May and June.

Whether the strange performance of my vagans and of some callunas is due to the weather I cannot tell, but you — may be interested to have some of my impressions at mid- September.

The vagans have been highly successful amongst the small recently planted varieties, but the larger and older plants have been irregular and far from satisfactory. ‘Pyrenees Pink’ has produced practically no bloom at all; ‘Pallida’ is only just coming into flower and then chiefly among that part of the group further from the sun. ‘Mrs D. F. Maxwell’ is patchy and ‘Lyonesse’ quite poor. But, on the other hand, my equally special Cornish friends, ‘Mullion’ and “‘Kynance’, are splendid.

Much as I admire Mr Sparkes’s goiden varieties, I do not think they look their best with a pink bloom and are really more effective in winter.

Some of my earlier Calluna plantings, ‘Cuprea’, ‘Alportii’ and ‘Serlei Aurea’, are getting so leggy and out of shape that I am inclined to make a big clearance in a few weeks and © thus have room for some new varieties.

Three years ago I cleared an herbaceous border, put in two bales of peat and planted 275 Cal. v. ‘J. H. Hamilton’. They have been slow to grow and to form a mass, but,

YEAR BOOK 1971 3

though not quite yet at their best, the show was delightful this summer and I took a colour photograph of them. John Letts did me well to collect such a good lot of plants.

I have two cinereas still in bloom—‘Eden Valley’ and “Cevennes’—the latter a few left from a bed of 24; a beautiful variety but so difficult to keep alive. Why, I wonder, does ‘County Wicklow’ go brown so soon? It is a most beautiful plant but has very poor lasting power when compared with ‘H. E. Beale’ and ‘Peter Sparkes’.

Finally, I still believe that the value of heathers for decorative purposes is not nearly enough appreciated. In addition, they will last for weeks in water.

I have had a daughter-in-law staying with me recently and she arranged three vases so well—mostly ‘H. E. Beale’ and ‘Peter Sparkes’ with a few vagans mixed in—that I felt more should be done to popularise this use of heathers.

We hope the R.H.S. will allow us to have a class at their September competition for vases of any variety arranged for decorative effect, and for which I would be glad to present a Silver challenge cup.

—— Ss

Heathers at Harlow Car

Gardens, Harrogate

V. J. A. Russ, Harrogate, Yorks.

At Harlow Car Gardens, Harrogate, in August the majority of the heather plants in the nursery beds were transplanted —a project involving many hundreds of plants which had to be deferred from the Spring owing to weather conditions. The bulk of these (whose ages vary from one to five years old) have been put in the large upper beds of the new garden extension—consisting of those varieties of which there were a sufficient number of plants to make an effective display. Others have been planted in the old Heath Garden, which has undergone an extensive rejuvenation, a number of the large old straggling plants having been discarded. Conifers have been planted in the new extension beds and

4 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

already one can see the basis of a very pleasing heather landscape. | :

At the time of the movement the callunas and vagans were in full flower and the new extension at once attracted con- siderable attention on that account. All species are repre- sented in the new planting and as nearly all have been labelled it should provide a useful illustration to visitors ~ of the behaviour of callunas and ericas in this part of the country. :

The drought has not helped these plants to settle in but we must hope that they will do so before the carnea season Starts.

op

The Life of a Heather Plant Fred J. Chapple, Port Erin, Isle of Man

‘Given good conditions, how long should a heather plant live?’ was a question I was recently asked. I asked the President of the Society how he would answer it and this is what he wrote...

It depends to some extent on where it is grown, the soil it grows in and the attention given to it at regular intervals— or no attention at all. Given reasonably good conditions and in suitable soil and clipping off faded blooms in the spring, its life span should be not less than 20 years.

I revisited my old house in July last and noticed a batch of vagans which I planted in 1945. I always trimmed them in April into a rounded bush. They looked well. I also saw ina nearby garden, and in splendid shape, a border of carneas which must have been planted 40 years ago. At “Furzey’ in the New Forest in 1952, Captain Dalrymple told me that many of the heathers—and a fine collection it was—were planted in 1920. Each one was cut back, hard back, pruned in fact every March regardless of weather excepting snow. ~ They seemed none the worse for their longevity and such

severe treatment. I should have been proud to possess them.

‘Not everyone agrees with my contention. Some affirm that after six years a heather should be removed and replaced by another. That is certainly better for trade!

YEAR BOOK 1971 5

A Heather Programme Dorothy Metheny, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Somewhat over ten years ago an Ericaceae study group to which I belonged decided that they had amassed information that might be of interest to amateur gardeners of this vicinity, and since that time, certainly not either as a botanist nor aS an expert gardener, but just as someone who has learned a little more about heathers than the average amateur gardener, I have given some 25 talks on the subject of heathers. Mostly I have been addressing garden clubs, and I think I have finally evolved an outline of a one and one-half hour programme that is satisfying and, one hopes, practical for an audience of this sort.

We show specimens of all available species, either fresh or dried and mounted, pointing out the obvious differences between the genera which simplify recognition of them. (i have found that a number of gardeners suppose that ‘heather’ refers to one genus only.) With the specimens still at hand, we next show a distribution map (of sorts!) of Europe,

Africa and the pertinent Atlantic islands, on which are

indicated in various coloured pencils the natural habitats of the genera Caliuna, Erica, Daboecia and Bruckenthalia

(which hereabouts is regularly sold as a ‘heather’ whatever

the purists may feel about it).

As sources of Further Information we show the books by Chapple, Maxwell and Patrick and Letts, and some of the heather sheets reprinted from our Ericaceae lectures, etc.

Now it is time to turn down the lights and start showing slides: Bruckenthalia flowering in the garden; Cassiope mertensiana and Phyllodoce empetriformis flowering in their natural stations in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle; heather-clad hills in the Scottish Highlands; Calluna and Erica cinerea heath in the Dee Valley, Aberdeenshire; the moor at Woodbury Common, Devon; the Cornish Heath (EZ. vagans) with lovely Scots Pines, on Goonhilly Downs, poetically misty; E. vagans, E. cinerea and Calluna clothing an old wall near St Keverne. If we had been able to get it this would certainly be the place to insert a slide of E. ciliaris at the Poole estuary. We are able to show E. arborea

6 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

with Spartium junceum in Athens, and E. multiflora on a roadside of the Island of Rhodes. The slide of the Heather Culture chart shows as follows:

Provide Avoid

GooD DRAINAGE... medium stiff clay... fresh loam... manure...

OPEN SITUATION . . . sandy- much shade... rich peaty soil. soil, 7%

Ordinary soil... poorsoil+ fertilisers... much peat. lime... cultivating

around roots.

A badly root-bound E. x darleyensis demonstrates what happens to plants left too long in pots. C. v. “The Molecule’ lifted after a few months in the ground is a reminder that the rootball of a happily situated small heather can be con- siderably larger than the visible top of the plant. A slide of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ planting shows the foolish appearance of a too-high planted Calluna teetering around on one leg. A well-mulched bed of young plants is a reminder of how to avoid having to hand weed. And finally comes a shot of the watering can over young plants.

The Annual Care section shows the evils of leaving C. v. ‘Serlei Aurea’ untrimmed so that it develops a great mass of foliage around its lower parts. And we explain the possi- bility of gradually rehabilitating such a neglected plant by selectively pruning out a few entire stems, thus allowing rejuvenating light into its centre. A mid-April slide of E. carnea “Ruby Glow’ shows the tendency of the carneas to quickly clothe themselves with new foliage concealing the spent bells, thus eliminating the necessity to trim them unless for reasons of containment. E. carnea ‘Snow Queen’ in mid-July has already well-developed flower buds for next winter’s show, and impresses the viewer with the advisability of not trimming carneas after the first of June. Then there are shots of our hillside before and after the March shearing. ~ Next follows a short section on Frost Damage. The star performer in this act is our poor old E. australis (type) which last winter was frozen right to the ground for the

YEAR BOOK 1971 i

third time in the ten years we have had it. Between the second and third freezes it attained a height of eight feet. One growing season after this latest cut-back it has 18 or 20 stems, two to three feet high. If we escape having a killing freeze this winter (1969-70) we should see its lovely pink bells again early in 1971. The moral of this, of course, is not to be precipitate about discarding roots of frost damaged plants.

The Propagation Section includes shots of self-sown Calluna seedlings in a peaty bed, the cutting box, a plant sunk for layering, self-layered rootlets on an E. cinerea, adventitious roots developed on a compact C. v. ‘Nana Compacta’ in a moist mild winter, the progress from tiny seedlings to a solid planting of EF. vagans in seven years. A slide of C. v. ‘Mrs Ronald Gray’ in the garden of Mrs Manning, Sebastopol, California, with a golden-leaved mutation suggests exciting possibilities. (Alas! their propaga- tion effort failed.)

The Garden Principles chart stresses the well-known (to the experienced grower) rule of using masses and lines to give a composed effect, of planting for undulating height and colour variety for added interest in extensive plantings, of remembering to keep habit, foliage and colour harmonious. And it mentions those prima-donna exceptions to the rule which can be planted singly—the Tree Heaths, character plants, and plants in special spots. A slide of a young plant in a four-inch pot, beside an enormous matured Calluna, is a warning against ignoring the ultimate size of what one is planting. A picture of a spotted (colour) arrangement of carneas on a bank is a horrible example of what always looks to me like the measles.

The Garden Uses (for the non-heather specialist) could go on and on, but I have finally reduced it to four slides— a tall hedge of free-growing E. terminalis, a low hedge of C. vy. “Alporti’ along a low wall, happily flowering; C. v. ‘Mrs Ronald Gray’ as ground cover under a planting of deciduous azaleas, and the solid green of the sheared heaths framing a brilliantly coloured group of Azalea ‘Glamour’ in spring.

A section on Prima Donnas includes three Callunas, ‘Foxii Nana’, ‘Dainty Bess’ and ‘Sister Anne’, Daboecia

8 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

cantabrica ‘“Praegerae’, E. australis ‘Mr Robert’, and a flowering E. arborea ‘Alpina’ beside a clump of white Birch trunks.

A dozen slides show winter and summer habits of Foliage Colour varieties, and my much-loved C. v. “Tomentosa’ with its lovely soft grey foliage and lavender bloom. (N.B.— The bloom is white in our form.—Ed.) It might be displaced by that wonderful C. v. “Hirsuta Typica’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens if we ever get a stock of it.

The group of Indispensables (remembering that we do not have a number of the much-prized recent developments available in Britain) includes C. vy. ‘H. E. Beale’, Daboecia cantabrica (for its attractive foliage and long-flowering season), E. carnea ‘Carnea’ for the same reason, a shot of E. car. ‘Springwood White’ and ‘Vivellii’ delightfully poking their bright heads up through a layer of white snow, and E. lusitanica with its long period of winter interest from bright red buds in December to masses of white bells two or three months later.

For an idea of real Heather Gardens we show flowering season pictures of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Wisley, a simple but effective planting on a wall in front of a Seattle home, the University of Washington Arboretum, and the Heather Garden at the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital, Seattle.

We conclude with samples of the year-round flowering in our garden. The only pause in our Heather Year seems to come early in May. First out then is Daboecia azorica. In June Bruckenthalia and the early cinereas commence to show spots of bright colour. July, August and September provide a wealth of colour possibilities in the summer flowering species. The old type form (I suppose) of EF. vagans with its light mauve flowers may not seem very thrilling as compared with the named forms, but it does have the advantage of keeping its colour through October and — November. C. y. ‘Elegantissima’ and my recently appeared ‘Autumn Glow’ have good colour in those months too. In

‘December the E. x darleyensis group, E. carnea ‘King George’ and E. car. “Carnea’ are in fine fettle, and the spent vagans varieties offer a lovely range of browns from the warm chocolate of ‘Mrs D. F. Maxwell’ to the light dun of

YEAR BOOK 1971 9

‘Alba’. January is brightened by many of the carneas, E. mediterranea ‘W. T. Rackliff’, etc. My favourite February picture is of a group planting of EF. carnea (type) and ‘Spring- wood White’ with a pink-fruited Pernettya mucronata and plants of Rhododendron mucronulatum, a vision in pink and white! March and April see E. australis and ‘Mr Robert’ with the beginning of the Glenndale hybrid azaleas. Sturdy old E. x Veitchii holds the fort right up to the time for Daboecia azorica to claim the spotlight with its brilliant bells. By this time anyone should be convinced that there’s nothing so satisfactory as heathers in the garden. Discarded from the programme as the years have passed have been a chart and explanation of the botanical relationship of these genera, which I think is not of pressing interest to most gardeners, and the history of heather introductions for garden use. What the garden club ladies appear to really want is practical information on what to grow and how. I used to show enthusiastically dozens and dozens of pictures of every kind of heather genus and species, followed by varieties of every habit, height, foliage colour and flower colour, form

and season. Now I think that many of these characters can

be worked in as illustrations for the gardening principles involved, leaving the audience of beginners more with some- thing to grasp and less overwhelmed by an indigestible mass of what naturally would be meat and drink to the knowing heather lover.

[After Dr and Mrs Metheny had given a fascinating lecture at the 1969 A.G.M. they most generously donated the 95 beautiful slides they had shown to the Society. Many of the varieties named in Mrs Metheny’s article are included in the collection and can be had on application to Mr H. C. Prew (address in Group 3 in the Membership List), the Society’s Slide Librarian. Ask for ‘Box M’, giving ample notice, as the slides are in great demand. Also in Mr Prew’s keeping is “Box A’ of 100 slides, a general collection, and ‘Box X’, 60 slides taken and donated by Mr J. P. Ardron, with a typed copy of the lecture (which is also on tape), going through the heathers, season by season. The Society are grateful for the slides that have been donated. More slides could be profitably used, especially of small gardens with an

10 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

attractive bed (or beds) of heathers, to help owners of | gardens who, like many of us, have less than half-an-acre. —Ed.]|

Sy

Heathers in Holland

and England’ H. van de Laar of Boskoop

It is a great pleasure for me to speak to the Heather Society about Calluna and Erica as grown in the Dutch nurseries and collections.

First, to tell you about myself, | am co-operator of the Experimental Station at Boskoop; secretary of the Selection Committee of the Royal Boskoop Nurserymen’s Association ~ and member of the Dutch Dendrological Union. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery, which-I am officially under, consented to my giving this lecture to your Society and financed my journey. Heaths and heathers moreover have my special interest, for | am an amateur just like you. Together with Dr Heyting of the Experimental Station at Boskoop, it was very interesting for me to make a trip through southern England last September while visiting a number of nurseries, and Wisley Gardens.

Until recently a rather limited assortment of heathers had been grown in the Netherlands. In the past ten years the number of cultivars has been enormously increased. At the moment we grow nearly 300 species and varieties, many of them imported from England. These are mostly grown by nurserymen, in botanical gardens and at the Heather Garden at Driebergen near Utrecht. Because many of the varieties were not true to name, there was much confusion — which was disadvantageous to our export trade. The Selection Committee therefore considered it necessary to ‘ plant an extensive collection to check the names and to judge the plants for value and elegance.

An intensive study of the Dutch assortment taught us a lot about the varieties used and the mixing up in the nurseries.

*A lecture given at the Society’s A.G.M., 1970.

YEAR BOOK 1971 11

After checking the most important nurseries and collections at other places, we achieved after a few years a distinct change for the better.The results of this research have been published in Dendrofiora No. 7.

The assortment in the Netherlands

There is still much confusion among the white-flowering callunas. What, for instance, has been grown in our country as ‘Alba Elata’ is the earlier flowering “Alba Erecta’.

Nearly all the plants grown under the name ‘Serlei’ are wrongly labelled: mostly it is also the very nice and healthy “Alba Erecta’. The later-flowering true ‘Serlei’ had formerly been grown in large quantities but now, because of its susceptibility to disease, is practically out of cultivation.

I am nearly sure the American ‘Else Frye’ is identical with ‘Alba Plena’. ‘August Beauty’ is nearly always the upright-growing ‘“Mair’s Variety’ of which, apart from that, we have two different forms. Finally we grow three different white-flowering ‘Elegantissima’; one of them has greyish foliage, the others have more green leaves. The first is the best and can be found in most nurseries. In one nursery at Boskoop, this variety has already been grown for 25 years as ‘Alba’. This highly recommended form is possibly identical with the old ‘Alba Pilosa’.

What is the difference between ‘Spitfire’ and the old ‘Aurea’? In my opinion there is no difference at all, at least in the Dutch material.

In the genus Erica I can say that the old and long-culti- vated Erica carnea‘Atrorubra’ and ‘Ruby Glow’ are identical. ‘King George’ and ‘Winter Beauty’ are also identical in Holland; for practical reasons, we maintain the name “Winter Beauty’, and the name ‘King George’ is added as a synonym. It is much easier for our Boskoop merchants to sell 1,000 specimens called ‘Winter Beauty’ than 100 plants called ‘King George’! The name of the plant is often of great importance, especially commercially. Also E. carnea ‘Snow Queen’ and ‘Cecilia M. Beale’ are mixed up in our country and it is very difficult to distinguish them.

Erica ciliaris ‘Globosa’ is also known in Holland as ‘Norden’, but this “Globosa’ is completely identical with ‘Rotundiflora’. Our ‘Stapehill’ has purplish pink flowers

12 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

and light green foliage, and appears not to be the true one. | In Erica cinerea, ‘Alba’ and ‘Alba Minor’ are mostly con- fused. ‘C. D. Eason’ is frequently grown; I found this variety in Holland under 10 different names. Our ‘Pallida’, a clear purple, rather hardy cultivar, appeared to be wrongly named, because the true one has pale purple flowers. This old variety has been renamed ‘Pallas’. Even our ‘Atrorubens’ is not the true one. The plants which we grow under this name, and also as ‘Rosabella’ and “Rosea’, have carmine- rose flowers. The latter name is perhaps the true or in any case the best one.

‘C. D. Eason’ is also grown as “Rosabella’. Our ‘Coccinea’ is mostly ‘C. D. Eason’, too. And what is ‘Splendens’? I do not see any difference between ‘C. D. Eason’ and this cultivar. Nearly all the plants grown in our country as ‘Frances’ must be called ‘C. G. Best’.

Erica darleyensis ‘Bohlje’ as grown in our country in very large quantities is completely identical with what you call E. darleyensis “Darley Dale’. Our Erica mackaiana is all E. m. ‘Lawsoniana’. They have been imported several times from different English nurserymen. Sometimes when we ordered E. m. ‘Lawsoniana’ we even received EF. mackaiana ‘Plena’, but never the rich pink, typical, E. mackaiana.

Erica ‘mediterranea’ var. hibernica in the Netherlands is always ‘Superba’. Of Erica Tetralix we grow three white- flowering cultivars, namely ‘Alba Praecox’, ‘Alba’ and ‘Alba Mollis’. You frequently grow ‘Alba Mollis’, but we have this one under the name ‘Alba’. This form of ‘Alba’ has normal hairs; our ‘Alba Mollis’ has distinct glands and bigger flowers, fading a little bit to pink. What is £Z. T. ‘Rubra’? We don’t believe we have the true one, since ours has light mauve-pink flowers.

We grow quite a lot of Erica vagans ‘Grandiflora’, but it is mostly called “Rosea’.

In the Erica x Watsonii group we have the cultivars — ‘Dawn’, ‘H. Maxwell’, ‘F. White’, ‘Gwen’ and ‘Rachel’, and one with large flowers, which looks to me to be the same ‘as ‘Dawn’ in Wisley Gardens.

The assortment in England After visits to Fisk’s Nursery in Suffolk, and Treasures of

YEAR BOOK 1971 13

Tenbury in Worcester, where special attention was paid to Clematis, we. travelled south to visit Maxwell and Beale near Wimborne. There I saw Erica cinerea ‘Rosabella’; however, I am certain it is identical with ‘C. D. Eason’. I have never seen “Rosabella’ again. Where does the material come from? Probably imported from Boskoop. The plants grown over here as °C. D. Eason’ are, in my opinion, ‘Atrosanguinea (Smith’s Variety)’; even ‘Atrorubens’ looks like ‘Atrosanguinea’, too.

At Hillier’s nursery in Winchester I saw Erica Tetralix ‘Alba’. This one has glandular hairs and is just the same plant which we grow as ‘Alba Praecox’. Erica mackaiana and E. m. “‘Lawsoniana’ were mixed up. Calluna vulgaris ‘Penhale’ in this nursery is just the same as our “Brachysepala Densa’ (or “Darleyensis’).

Then we made a call at Mr Ingwersen’s nursery at East Grinstead. At his well-known heather nursery I found E. cinerea ‘Coccinea’, but I did not see any difference from ‘C. D. Eason’. E. cinerea ‘Baylay’s Variety’ looks the same as ‘Eden Valley’. I recognised E. x Watsonii ‘Dawn’ as ‘H.

Maxwell’, also E. vagans ‘Lyonesse’ as ‘Alba’. Here E.

Tetralix ‘Alba’ is similar to the Dutch one, but as at Hilliers E. Tetralix “Alba Mollis’ was recognised as ‘Alba Praecox’, and Calluna yulgaris ‘Penhale’ as ‘Brachysepala Densa’. Calluna vulgaris “Alba Pilosa’ was all mixed up. The grey- leaved form looks exactly like our ‘Elegantissima’. I did not know the other one. Calluna vulgaris “Nana Compacta’ looks the same as our ‘Foxii Floribunda’. ‘Foxit Nana’ is, in my opinion, true to name.

In the garden of Mr and Mrs Letts I made a note of the following. Erica Tetralix “Alba Mollis’ is identical with our ‘Alba’. E. carnea ‘Ann Sparkes’ is, qua foliage, identical with ‘Vivellit Aurea’. This bronzy-leaved form came from Germany. The flowers are slightly more purple than in ‘Vivellii’. In this place C. vulgaris ‘Nana Compacta’ is again exactly like our ‘Foxii Floribunda’. I agree with their ‘Foxii Nana’. Erica ciliaris ‘Hybrida’ is the same as our E. x Watsonii ‘Dawn’.

At the nursery of G. Underwood and Son, I found E£. Tetralix ‘Alba’, but ’'m sure it 1s ‘Alba Praecox’. To my mind £. vagans ‘Grandiflora’ is the cultivar ‘Rubra’. No

14 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

difference was found between E. ciliaris ‘Globosa’ and — ‘Rotundiflora’. Is there really any difference between £. cinerea ‘Hookstone White’ and the old ‘Alba Minor’? I do not believe so, for the true-named plants from England ~ are grown side by side and they are just the same. Calluna vulgaris ‘August Beauty’ is not the true one. As everywhere, ‘Spitfire’ looks identical with ‘Aurea’.

At Wisley Gardens I saw ‘Else Frye’ and ‘Alba Plena’. Just as in Holland, I couldn’t find any difference between those two varieties. Once again, EF. Tetralix ‘Alba Mollis’ is the same as our ‘Alba’. E. x Watsonii ‘Dawn’ has darker and bigger flowers than in the Dutch material. I recognised C. vulgaris ‘Pyrenaica’ as ‘Pygmaea’.

ss The First Five Years

The Editor

I have recently spent an interesting evening looking through the Year Books since the Society’s commencement seven years ago. We have not been alive long enough to write a history of ourselves, and all I can do is to take out snippets of what I read that impressed me or were a reminder of a happening.

At the end of the seventh book (1970) I realised more that ever before how fortunate we have been to have such a wonderful lot of contributors, how much we all owe them for their writings and especially my great debt to them for their ready support. Dr Samuel Johnson once wrote: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money’. Had he lived in the 20th century he would have had to eat his words, as we, like dozens of other societies, would not be able to have a journal had we to pay for what was written.

1963. The inaugural meeting of the Society was on ‘February 20th, 1963, when ‘despite snowdrifts and winter despair’ (as Mrs MacLeod reports) there was an attendance of over 40, with 15 letters of apology, all in answer to a letter from Sir John Charrington in the R.H.S. Journal the

YEAR BOOK 1971 15

previous August. Furthest to travel on that wintry afternoon was Mr F. J. Chapple, from the Isle of Man, who was elected President of the Society; most of us knew him as the author of The Heather Garden.

We had 32 pages of reading in the first Year Book published in the autumn of the same year, the first six pages being taken up with the Society’s beginnings. It included two articles that | hope will be reprinted in future numbers: ‘Cape Heaths’ by the late Dr Ronald Gray, and ‘Heathers in the Landscape’ by the late W. L. Irvine, a landscape architect, who ended his article with wise words: ‘First and last the heather landscape is smooth, rounded and continuous’. At the end of the book we had ‘Questions and Answers’, a selection of questions that had come to the Editor, a feature that might well be reintroduced. I blush now when I discover there were two questions from Mr David McClintock and two from Mrs Pamela Harper, unknown to me then but, since early days, regular con- tributors to this book, and from whom I have since learned such a lot!

1964. This year we mourned the death of Lt-Colonel

Donald MacLeod, D.S.0., M.c., the first Treasurer of the

Society. In a tribute to him Sir John Charrington wrote

how he asked Colonel MacLeod to be the first Secretary of the Society, which he declined on the grounds of in- different health, but suggested Mrs MacLeod be appointed Secretary in his place. Those of us who served with him, even for so short a time, experienced a real sense of lossin his passing.

The first ‘Notes on British Heathers’ by David McClintock appeared in this number and has continued every year; the one on p. 25 is the seventh. The Society is under a great obligation to Mr McClintock for these most informative and useful articles which have meant a great deal of research and time spent in the writing of them. It is my hope that it will be possible to issue them bound together, which would be invaluable in the future to all who write on heathers.

The first contribution from the United States appeared this year, from Mrs Esther Deutsch, of Long Island, whose death a short time later deprived the Society of a valued

16 THE HEATHER SOCIETY

member and the Editor of a delightful correspondent. The same number contains an enquiry from ‘Mrs D. M. (Seattle)’, whom we later came to know and appreciate as Mrs Metheny, and whom we were so glad to meet when she showed her lovely slides of heathers at the A.G.M. in 1969. In this number there is an article by her, most helpful to. those of our members who give talks on heathers.

Fifteen members in different parts of the British Isles were asked for their twelve favourite varieties; twelve - questionnaires were returned. Sixty-seven different varieties were chosen, but even then there were some notable absentees. E. vagans ‘Mrs D. F. Maxwell’? headed the poll, with Calluna vulg. ‘H. E. Beale’ and E. carnea ‘Springwood White’ equal second.

In September the Society staged its first heath display at a R.H.S. Fortnightly Show. This effort ‘manned’ by Mrs MacLeod and members for two days has been continued since then, and attracted much attention, and is good for recruiting new members. Mrs MacLeod rightly calls it ‘our best shop window’. How good it would be if it were possible to extend these displays to provincial shows.

1965. This year “The Northern Group’ of the Society was formed which is very active and has had a major part in the making of a first-class Heather Garden at Harlow Car, Harrogate, the headquarters of The Northern Horticultural Society, working in conjunction with the Gardens Super- intendent, Mr Geoffrey Smith, himself a member of this society.

In the Year Book it was announced that the membership was still below 500. Mrs Pamela Harper became Editor, and an Editorial Sub-Committee had been formed. The first report of Heather Trials at Wisley were published which are of interest to many. The value of the awards given at these trials, not only to heathers, is exercising the minds of many now, but without doubt they should be a guide to a first-class plant the knowledge of which is useful to grower and buyer alike.

We had the first contribution from New Zealand for the Year Book and ‘Shrubs for the Heather Garden’ from Mrs P. Harper, beside which I see I made a pencilled note:

YEAR BOOK 1971 ila

‘full of good practical sense’. Finally there was a short article from the President on ‘Erica umbellata’. | was glad to be reminded of this species again as I have never seen it doing so well, or flowering over such a long period, as it has been this year. It may be the dry spring suited it, though so disastrous to some species.

1966. Shortly before the Year Book was published we were grieved to hear of the death of a founder Vice-President, Dr Ronald Gray, who from our earliest days took a great interest in the Society. I shall always feel grateful to him for his friendship to me; on three successive years he wrote an article for the Year Book. His great delight was in the cultivation of South African Heaths, on which he was an authority, and I remember how impressed I was with his knowledge of them when he took me into his greenhouse where he had persuaded more than 60 species to flourish. So many felt they had lost a real friend when he left us.

In this year Sir John Charrington celebrated his 80th birthday. As Mrs MacLeod wrote in her report, °. . . pride of place must go to the luncheon at Wisley on 30th July, _ when a new “gold” Calluna raised by Mr J. W. Sparkes, of Beoley, was launched under the name “Sir John Charrington’”’ in honour of the birthday’. A parent plant was given by Mr Sparkes to Sir John.

The Year Book contained six articles on different ways for propagating heathers, all most useful and practical. Mr Harold Copeland of Chatham, Massachusetts (‘far out at sea on the elbow of Cape Cod, with the Atlantic Ocean bordering three sides of the town’), wrote about his garden. His most recent letter tells me he has over 300 varieties now, and many heather enthusiasts find it a good place to come to for correctly-named cuttings as Mr Copeland never charges for them. There was a most interesting article by Brigadier Weigall on “The use of fertilisers on heathers’ which, I know, caused the raising of a good many eyebrows. I wonder how many adopted his methods? Just this week (November 1970) I have heard from one who did, with great SUCCESS.

1967. At the request of our Society this year the R.H.S. included special classes for heaths at a Spring Fortnightly

18 THE HEATHER SOCIETY |

Show, and for heaths and heathers in midsummer. Mrs MacLeod reported: ‘At these competitions and the Autumn Display, which for the third time won us a Silver Flora Medal, we noted that people show an increased interest in heathers’. |

Mrs Pamela Harper saw the Year Book into the printers” hands and then followed her husband to America: a very great loss to us in Britain, but she still retains her interest in the Society, sending me an article for this publication every year, and, from what she writes in her letters to me, spreading the ‘gospel’ of heather growing in her area.

There are some most excellent articles in this number. It is difficult to extract paragraphs from any one of them without taking something from all, but here are some of the titles: ‘Heaths and Heathers down under’, an account of how the authors became interested in heathers, knowing little about them, and how they conducted their own experiments in soil, propagation, fertilisers, etc., keeping careful records all the time. Mr Geoffrey Smith, Superintendent of the Harlow Car Gardens, Harrogate, makes out a good case for the improvement given to a heather garden by a com- panion planting of dwarf conifers, birch, maple and other suitable shrubs, and dwarf bulbs. There is an interesting account of another heather garden on chalk, and another one that is gale-swept and the problems its owner has to overcome. There is an article on the E. mackaiana country in Connemara, Ireland, which was almost a prelude to the Society’s visit to Western Ireland in the following year.

Mr H. C. Prew writes with expert knowledge on the great use of magnesium sulphate in the growing of heathers; one sentence he wrote I have never forgotten, viz. “The family Ericaceae is not so much a lime hater as an iron lover’. Breaking fresh ground for us was an instructive article ‘Heathers in Flower Arrangement’ by Miss F. Laugher.

This number was crammed with good things; Mrs MacLeod still has a few copies left, price 10/- each, post paid. For those who do not possess it, I recommend it.

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YEAR BOOK 1971 19 Companions for Heathers

Mrs P. Harper, Maryland, U.S.A.

What is and what is not a suitable companion for heather depends not only on the soil, situation and size of the garden but, to a greater extent, on the proclivities of in- dividual gardeners. If the sight of pelargoniums and similar exotics plunged amidst the heathers pleases you, go ahead ... plant them... enjoy them... it is your garden and you have my blessing. But read no further, for we speak a different language.

Those still with me probably agree that flamboyance is out of place, simple flowers of subtle colouring making the most compatible consorts, with priority given to other members of the heath family. Here are a few suggestions. All the plants mentioned I have either grown myself or seen growing in heather gardens in England or the U.S.A.

Whether or no the large-flowered rhododendrons are

- suitable candidates is open to question, but Rhododendron

(Rhodora) canadensis, a daintier twiggy shrub some 2-3 feet in height, so enchanted the poet Emerson that he extolled

the loveliness of its rosy-purple flowers, borne on leafless

branches in May (probably April in England) in a sonnet. Iron hardy through bitter New England winters, its preferred habitat is the partially shaded slopes of moist hillsides or beside slow woodland streams. To compensate for England’s greyer skies, put it in a sunnier place. Provided only that the soil is cool and peaty the Bog Rosemary, Andromeda polifolia, is happy in full sun, though Linnaeus wrote that this plant is . . . ‘always fixed on some little turfy hillock in the midst of the swamps, just as Andromeda herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her feet as the fresh water does the roots of this plant. As the distressed virgin cast down her blushing face, so does this rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and paler till it withers away.’ The heath-like urns appear through May and June and the tiny lance-shaped leaves with margins rolled down, glossy above, white below, are evergreen. This is a very easy little shrub to

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layer. My own plant never exceeded six inches in height but there are taller forms available.

Pieris make attractive shrubs for shadier sections of large heather gardens and none is <